Eighteen-year-old Dustin Carter, has no legs and almost no arms. Two days ago, he qualified in Ohio’s Division II wrestling tournament, finishing third in his region and staking a claim to being one of the best wrestlers in the state.
“His perseverance speaks for itself,” said Scott Goodpaster, Carter’s trainer. “He wants to win. He wakes up every day wanting to win. This is his passion, and he bleeds for it. He works so hard to get by in life.”
Carter says, “I wrestle like anybody else. I go to school like anybody else. I can live on my own like anybody else. I can do anything anybody else can do. I don’t like people feeling sorry for me.” And they shouldnÃtóhe unscrews water-bottle tops, pops aluminum tabs on soda cans, unwraps ham sandwiches, writes essays, makes Western omeletÃs, puts his pants on prosthetic legs every night (a 15-minute task), mows the lawn, swims, fishes and darts around the gymnasium floor like a Jack Russell as he wrestles.
South African, Oscar Pistorius has been dubbed by London’s Daily Mail, “the fastest man on earth”. With the aid of high-tech carbon-fiber blades known as Cheetahs, he is as fast as the best able-bodied runners in the world and a Paralympic champion and world-record holder in amputee races over 100m, 200m and 400m as well as winning gold in Athens. In January of 2008, the IAAF ruled that he was ineligible to compete in the Beijing Olympics because, in their opinion, his prosthetic racing legs gave him a clear competitive advantage. Pistorius, known as the “blade runner,” said he will appeal the decision, including taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.
In these two examples we are reminded that focus and clarity are laser-like in their intensity and effectiveness. When we have this clear inner knowing, mere obstacles such as physical limitations become inconsequential.
The common characteristic that Dustin Carter and Oscar Pistorius share is that they both have absolute clarity about who they are and what they want to do with their lives–so much clarity in fact, that perversely, a disabled athlete is considered to be a threat to others who are able bodied!
What is the clarity within you that inspires you, and therefore, everyone with whom you connect? This is the hallmark of a great leader.
(Read the article about Dustin Carter in the New York Times and Oscar Pistorius in Time)
